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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Tarrant County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
1195
Community-reported

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.

What we do not know

Tarrant County Sheriff

  • What the agreement costs, and who pays for it.
  • Which underlying contract the flowdown agreement flows down from.
  • How many cameras the Sheriff's Office can see, and whether any of them are its own.
  • How long a plate read is kept, and who set that period.
  • Which other agencies can query the reads, and whose reads the office can query.
  • Whether a use, audit and retention policy exists, and whether the Commissioners Court has seen it.
  • Whether the agreement is still in force.

What license plate readers are

An automated license plate reader photographs every passing vehicle and records the plate, the time and the place. It does not watch suspects. It logs everyone, and the record is usually kept on a vendor’s servers.

How they work, why agencies buy them, and every county we have documented →

What you can do

Civic action

Show up

This technology is bought and renewed by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Tarrant County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Tarrant County →

Personal protection

Protect yourself

Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.

Surveillance Self-Defense ↗